Fishery Bay whaling station was a

whaling station Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industry a ...

located in the

Colony of South Australia In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state'' ...

on the coast of Fishery Bay, a subsidiary of the larger

Sleaford Bay __NOTOC__ Sleaford Bay is a bay located in the Australian state of South Australia on the southern coast of Eyre Peninsula. It was named by the British navigator, Matthew Flinders in 1802. Extent & description Sleaford Bay is located on the ...

, on

Eyre Peninsula The Eyre Peninsula is a triangular peninsula in South Australia. It is bounded by the Spencer Gulf on the east, the Great Australian Bight on the west, and the Gawler Ranges to the north. Originally called Eyre’s Peninsula, it was named aft ...

about south-west of

Port Lincoln Port Lincoln is a town on the Lower Eyre Peninsula in the Australian state of South Australia. It is situated on the shore of Boston Bay, which opens eastward into Spencer Gulf. It is the largest city in the West Coast region, and is located a ...

. It operated in the 1830s and 1840s and helped to provide the colony with one of its first export commodities.

History

A shore-based

was operating at Fishery Bay by late 1837. In November the

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

''Siren'' left

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is the main port for the ...

for Sleaford Bay “to take on a cargo of oil from the station there.” By 1839 the station was under the control of the United Fishing Company of Adelaide, which was a partnership between the

South Australian Company The South Australian Company, also referred to as the South Australia Company, was formed in London on 9 October 1835, after the '' South Australia (Foundation) Act 1834'' had established the new British Province of South Australia, with the So ...

and Messsrs Hack and Company. The South Australian company sold out in 1841 and the Hack brothers then became sole owners. They in turn found themselves in financial difficulties in the depression of the early 1840s and were declared insolvent in 1843. Hagan and Hart purchased the station, as well as another owned by the Hack brothers at

Rosetta Head Rosetta Head, known as Kongkengguwar by the Ramindjeri people but more commonly known as The Bluff, is a headland located on the south coast of Fleurieu Peninsula in Encounter Bay, South Australia, within the local government area of the City o ...

. They operated the Fishery Bay station for three or four months before closing it down. No further whaling seems to have occurred at the location after 1843. Archaeological investigations in the area have identified the remains of buildings and artifacts associated with the whaling station. The site, which is located in the locality of

Sleaford Sleaford is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. Centred on the former parish of New Sleaford, the modern boundaries and urban area include Quarrington, Lincolnshire, ...

, was added the

South Australian Heritage Register The South Australian Heritage Register, also known as the SA Heritage Register, is a statutory register of historic places in South Australia. It extends legal protection regarding demolition and development under the ''Heritage Places Act 1993'' ...

on 23 September 1982. The land on which the former whaling station was located was previously declared as a ''historic reserve'' under the ''

Aboriginal and Historic Relics Preservation Act 1965 Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to: *Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology * Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area *One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...

'' on 31 August 1972.

References

{{reflist Whaling stations in Australia Eyre Peninsula South Australian Heritage Register